March 2015

June 01, 2012

Today is a big day!!! A new look, new teammates, an announcement, a new gallery...

But first, please help us blow out the candles because today is our

Three years ago today, Tina, Elizabeth, and Marnie posted the first post at write. click. scrapbook. how time flies. Since then, we have had 1315 posts, nearly 40 000 comments, and more than 150 giveaways. We cannot even begin to add up the number of layouts that our team has done, but the monthly galleries, alone, have showcased 977 layouts and 44 mini albums. All for you!

And while three years have seen patterns on the papers change, products come, and trends go, one thing that stands strong is our commitment to you. When we began, we carefully crafted our beliefs:

1. We believe in telling stories.

2. We believe that understanding photography and design make scrapbooking a little more fun.

3. We believe in the power of color. We also believe in the power of kraft, black, and white.

4. We believe that scrapbooking should be fun and guilt-free.

5. We believe that there is no one right way to scrapbook.

and we stand by them as much today as in days' past. We love scrapbooking. And we know you do, too. And we are here to help you make it doable, sustainable, and fun!

To help us celebrate today's birthday festivities, we have put together a team bloghop! We wanted to make it easy, so we are going in alphabetical order. As you click from blog to blog, you can collect letters that you will need to know if you are selected as the lucky number for a giveaway! Our crew is also excited to share with you their thoughts about being a part of write. click. scrapbook. and to give you a sneak peek into their layout for this month's gallery!!

and find the letter that is associated with each team member. Then return here and leave a comment telling us what you love most about write. click. scrapbook. Your comment will be considered for our first year four giveaway, an entire box filled with scrapbooking goodies. AND there are giveaways to be found all along the path...

Before you hop away...

Did you notice some new names up there? We thought you might have. We are thrilled beyond measure to announce the addition of 5 new team members. (We actually have 6 new ones, but you are going to have to wait for one whole month to meet the other! heehee!!)

Please give a warm welcome to...

We are excited for all of you to fall in love with them as we have. Not only are they talented scrapbookers, but they are kind, lovely women with a point of view, a story to tell, and some amazing creativity oozing out of them! If you click on their photo, it will take you to their bio pages so you can read a little more about them. And as you visit their blogs on the bloghop, please take a minute to say hello and introduce yourself to them. Be forewarned that you might get lost in their talented creations!

You may also have noticed a few names missing from the list. Aly, Karen, Stacy, Wendy, and Cheryl are all turning in their keys, so to speak. Stacy, Aly, and Cheryl have all been with us from the beginning. We cannot thank them enough for their kindness and hard work. And while Karen and Wendy added later, they, too, left an indelible impression on our site. We will miss them; not just their talent, but also their hearts. We look forward to seeing them in other places and wish them tremendous success and happiness.

And while you have filled some of the spaces on our team. We still have one more! And wondered if you might like it? Announcing our first ever

If you have longed to be a part of the write. click. scrapbook. team, now is your chance! We are excited to open up a team spot to one of you! We want to fill it with someone who knows us and loves us. Someone who will help make us great and will shout from the rooftops that write. click. scrapbook. is one awesome scrapbooking site.

As a write. click. scrapbook. teammate you will be responsible to provide a minimum of one layout per month for our monthly galleries, and you will host the blog for one week, and a handful of single days. Team members also help one another by providing pertinent layouts to support the other blog authors.

We love pages that are well-designed, and tell good stories. Our teammates not only scrapbook well, but also write well, as they must share their love and knowledge of scrapbooking through a week of blogging. Good photography is an asset as well.

If you would like to be considered, please put together a sample blog post, on your topic of choice. Additionally, please create a layout or project that will fit under the topic, Summer Fun. We will accept applications through June 23rd. Please know we will also browse through your blog to get a feel for your writing style and personality. The new team member will be notified prior to July 1st. Please send your application materials to marnie@writeclickscrapbook.com.

To review we need:

a sample blog post on a topic of your choosing,

a layout that fits the theme Summer Fun,

a link to your blog,

a link to your sample blog post, and

a bit about why you want to be on our team.

Please don't forget that we are real people with real lives and are looking for real pages. Please try to be yourself. We will be impressed without you even trying. Promise.

Lastly, on this very busy day, let's not forget that today is the first of the month, which means it's

This month, our teammates were paired up and asked to create a layout inspired by their partner. Here are the pairings. What great pairs!

If you follow the links found in the designer's notes, you will see the inspiration and learn how one layout or project inspired another. Be sure to look at both--some are so similar, while others are worlds apart. Isn't inspiration an amazing thing?

Thank you for stopping! We appreciate your comments, in ways you can't imagine, so please leave one telling us why you love write. click. scrapbook. Comments for the giveaway will remain open though Sunday evening. One lucky number will be selected at random and posted on Monday. Please remember it is your responsibility to check back and claim your lucky number before Wednesday.

Have fun in the gallery, on the blog hop, and we look forward to receiving your applications!

May 26, 2012

What a fun week we had with Amy! Thank you, Amy, for helping us realize what amazing inspiration is all around us and how it can directly or indirectly translate onto a page, and best part yet, get those pages done!!

May has been a good month here at write. click. scrapbook. This month we made crafty goodies for our teachers to help with Teacher Appreciation and school's end. Then Lisa inspired us to help incorporate our social media into our scrapbooking. (Curiously, I think that many many many scrapbookers have let social media take the place of their scrapbooks. Which makes sense for the record keeping and daily noticing part of life, but worries me in the sense that there is no hard copy of all that note taking.) Our third week was spent preparing for Father's Day. And then this past week, we had Amy's help buying chocolate and finding inspiration.

Our Saturday workshops were delightful. Marie encouraged us to journal about a change that we have been through. Lisa encouraged us to take some food related photographs, and provided some fabulous tips on how to make those photos better. And then last week, we had a great scrapbook challenge week with a new sketch, printable, and design challenge.

And we still have more May next week with Erin!! You know you're excited about that!! I am. I love how very authentic and approachable Erin and her layouts are. She captures her spirit so well in her layouts. I love that and can't wait to see what she brings.

But before we look ahead, lets' also take one long last longing look back at our EveryDaily Gallery.

This month we are going to look back a little differently. This month I am going to use the 20 layouts to make lists. Ready?

Here are 20 photos you should take to help preserve your everyday life:

There you have it! One little gallery providing you with 60 assignments. Think of all the pages you would make!! Those lists make me hungry to scrapbook! Why do housework when there are 60 pages that need to be done!!

Thank you, to our lovely ladies for a month well done!! In just 5 more days we will be celebrating our fourth birthday! Can you believe another year has nearly passed?

April 28, 2012

One of my favorite movements recently has been the push to keep gratitude journals. I was raised with the idea that one should count their blessings, especially when one is feeling a little discouraged or down. And I have to admit it helps shake the blues, and the greens. And the yellows. Helping to bring me back to happy. This month, I loved having the chance to not just count some blessings, but also to take time to write them down in a layout.

How about you? Does it help you to note the good things? Does your perspective impact your happiness? If so, have you taken time to make a layout about the concept or about a particular gratitude? Perhaps one last look back through our gallery will provide you with the inspiration you need to do just that!

Francine - I love how Francine's photos look as if they are hanging on a clothesline, except the line is below them. (So resting upon?) I think the design adds to the hominess of her layout.

Karen - Did you notice that Karen's layout is filled with elements that are a tiny bit askew, tipped to the left, tipped to the right, a little up, a little down... and then there is the photo grid. With its even borders and symmetrical placements. Such a stabilizing element. Perfect.

Celeste - The digital magic of Celeste belongs to her use of shadows. Look closely at the grid squares and how the shadows make them so slightly raised. Even the stiches have a teensy bit of shadow. It is this that changes the layout from digiboring to digireal. So small, but so impactful.

EmilyS - Do you sometimes make a list and want to use numerical embellishments but can't get them all on a page? How do you decide which to use and which to let go? Follow Emily's idea. She just picked a few, then placed the selected flair in appropriate places that make sense from a design perspective. Next, add the journaling around it. Easy peasy. Or so Emily makes it look.

Donna - The use of this quote card is genius. It adds a title, a decorative element, and a nice balance stylistically to the photo. Donna has a remarkable sense of balance in her layouts, without resorting to symmetry. This layout is one of many that shows this off.

Aly - Hands down, my favorite part of Aly's layout is that she is in her birthday photo. Hooray to Derek for taking hold of that camera and helping preserve Aly on her birthday!

LisaO - Have you seen those maps with pushpins that show where people have been? Lisa's layout reminds me of those. I love the visual story told by the hearts. Such a useful design element.

Amy - Did you read through Amy's journaling? It was so delightful. And sincere. And didn't have much at all to do with the days the leaves were thrown about. Photos can really be a jumping off point for stories, good stories, important stories. If you let them.

Paula - Oooh, I love a good list of things that are important. I love a good list that doesn't look like a boring old list. And I love the idea of keeping track of one thing per day. Such a lovely idea.

Diane - I have one word. Buttons. I love them. And I don't see them much anymore. But Diane used them. Beautifully, might I add. Thank you, Diane!

Marnie - Do you see the title? Do you see how the line of the r lines up with the left edge of the photo? Which lets the swoop of the g rest nicely in the swoop of the parentheses. Oh, I love fonts.

LisaK - Even though Lisa's photo is busy and contains many colors and details, you still notice her husband and children first. She wisely pulled the colors of her daughters' dresses into the layout. And by putting one little frame with a white center (the one to the right of the frame which says, "these girls") next to the photo, the white of the girls' sweaters pulls right out of the picture and the girls take center stage on the layout. As they should.

Erin - This layout has a fantastic collection of patterned papers. Small dots, chevron zigzags, stripes and big dots. In varying shades and colors. So delightful! Erin is so good with her papers.

Keshet - Ever notice how Keshet uses the tiniest elements to draw things together? For instance, did you notice the teensy yellow sequence that dots the "i" in her title is the same one strung across the collage in the top left corner? We often speak of repetition as a means of tying elements together. This is a perfect example.

Marie - Do you love these photos? Aren't they yummy? I also love how there is a second story going on on the left hand side with the bitty little journaling strips. Clever.

Kelly - Lining up her elements down the center of the page, Kelly's little Gabe gets front and center billing. With the journaling paper running the entire height of the page, the top photo becomes the focal point of the layout. A helpful design strategy.

Vivian - Using images and ephemera rather than photos, Vivian captures the story of her day even though she had no photos. Do not be deterred by photoless days when there are still stories to be told!

Monika - I love the idea of putting the journaling snippets on flags. It is so much more interesting than bullet points! Have you thought of other ways to journal lists without using a list?

Did you enjoy the Saturday workshops this month? I hope that you were able to find something inspiring? One of my favorite projects is putting the challenges together in a fun way to create a layout that stretches my creativity. This week I used Amy's challenge to make use of demonstrative adjectives, Lisa's challenge to look past the normal for a fun photo, Celeste's sketch, and the typography of Monika's printable, and put them together to make my newest layout. This one took me awhile to get it right, but I think it will grow on me. (It took me four hours (yes four hours! yikes!) so I am calling it done. Not every layout has to be my favorite, right?)

I hope you were able to be inspired, too! Please, oh please, if you make a layout, will you load it to our Flickr gallery and leave me a link so that I might oogle your creations? I would love that!

April 18, 2012

Hello, everyone! It's Keshet Starr here to continue Baby Week with some tips on photographing that little munchkin and using the photos on some fun projects!

My baby is less than three months old, and according to my Picasa albums, I've already taken over 1300 photos of her. Oy. Some of my favorites of those shots of her, though, are the "monthly" shots, since they highlight her growth so clearly.

Not exactly what I had in mind, but hey, it's still pretty cute, right?

Eventually I bribed my kid by nursing charmed my baby into a less angry pose. . .

To give you a sense of what my little "photoshoots" look like in action, here's a pullback:

Gotta love the awesome apartment carpeting!

I had a lot of fun using the photos to create a layout with more information about my Ellie at a month old.

Here's a close-up (and if you're wondering, the adorable "1 month old' card is from a set by Elle's Studio!

Just a few days ago, I took Ellie's two month photos, and I was surprised by how different the experience was! Let's just say I had to bump up my shutter speed significantly to keep up with her!

When it comes to photographing babies in general, I'm really learning as I go! Whenever I have a happy baby and pretty light, I take advantage of it with the camera. Even adding a cute headband to a onesie is a quick and simple way to have a girly photoshoot.

One of the most helpful tips I've learned is to position your baby to face the light source. Aside from that, rules are rules--capture the little things you want to remember, good light or not.

Marnie had a few photo tips for newborns. First,don't forget the little details. Think of all the little parts you love to touch and admire. Then snap away.

Next, don't not take pictures because of bad baby acne. It happens. So can photoshop.

Baby P had a bit of acne. We tried to put her good light so that there wouldn't be dark shadows. I did my normal photoshop routine. Then a took that photo and ran it through a smoother (The one in the new PicMonkey, actually!) Then I laid the super smoothed over the other in photoshop and cleaned out the parts that I didn't want so smooth. And here is what we got.

It looks a bit ethereal against the other, but P's mom was happy to have a clean one she could blow up and put up on the wall.

Marnie also noted that when she does a baby shoot, she plans no fewer than four hours. Sometimes the magic needs a little (or a lot) patience.

And lastly, babies are so tiny but that can get a bit lost if they are alone in the shoot. That something you add in for scale can be a beloved item, a tired parent, a sibling, a grandma, or some furniture.

Before I go, let's talk about one more way to use baby photos--announcements! I didn't use announcements for Ellie, but Marie Taylor shared some adorable ones with me.

April 02, 2012

As spring blooms, and nature's green unfolds, the magnificence of earth's splendor often gives us pause, causing us to slow, breathe deeply, and marvel at the beauty of nature. Suddenly inside us awakes a deep sense of gratitude for what we are seeing and what we have. Not since Thanksgiving have we felt so connected to our lives and so thankful for all we have. Please join us in creating a page or two to honor our lives and note those things for which we are feeling thankful!

March 31, 2012

First, thank you, dear readers, for your kind excitement and comments for our month of mini albums. We appreciate your patience with our trying new things and hope that you have enjoyed the monthly theme.

Second, we could not have made this month work without our kit sponsors. Thank you Cocoa Daisy, JBS Mercantile, and Studio Calico for your generosity in not only providing kits for our giveaways, but also for our designers. Please stop by and visit them and leave them a big thank you!!

Did you know that this month you have had the pleasure of 37 mini albums? Did you have a favorite theme? topic? design? As our last hurrah, let's take our monthly stroll through our gallery. A last lingering look before we move on to another weekly and monthly topic.

I enlisted Amy's help and together we have compiled a summary of the gallery and some prompts for your creativity.

Aly’s mini focuses on some of her beliefs and values. Try journaling about a belief you are passionate about, a value you hope your child implements throughout his life, or a concept that you think will help your child become a stronger person. Or try journaling about a time when your child showed she’d really learned one of your values or beliefs.

Amy's album is a collection of photos that tell their own story. Have you begun a pattern of taking a particular photo? If so, go back and find them, and put them together as Amy has in a book that highlights them and allows them to shine.

Celeste’s mini is a vacation album. On one page, she wrote about her son seeing whales and how that was one of his bucket-list items. Try journaling about one of your children’s or your own experiences with crossing an item off of your bucket list.

In her Summer 2011 album, Christa journals about her family’s affection for Myrtle Beach. Try writing some journaling about why you go to a specific place for your vacations.

In Diane’s year-in-review album, there is a page about making pizza. Try journaling about your family’s pizza traditions. Do you make yours or buy them? Which brand is everyone’s favorite and how do you conquer the great topping debate?

Donna’s album documents her favorite season, fall. Try journaling about your favorite season. What do you love about it? And why? What is your favorite seasonal tradition? What do you remember about this season from your childhood? How does your affection for the season influence your family?

EmilyS made a mini with space for writing the funny and cute things her daughter says. Try journaling about your child’s own funny conversations or way with words. If you can’t think of any, spend a day or two just listening for the funny things; jot them down and you’ve made a great start on your journaling!

Erin dedicated an entire page in her mini to journaling about one month in her son’s life. Try journaling about a single month in your children's lives. What kinds of activities and learning are they focused on? What were the highlights? What were the hard parts? What changes were made in those 30-odd days?

Francine's sweet mini shows how we can celebrate the mini in a literal way. Maybe set a two hour window for yourself and create a mini mini that can be at the ready for adding in photos as they are ready.

Karen’s album gives an overview of her current goals. Try journaling about one of your children’s goals. How is she going about accomplishing it? What setbacks has she had? How has she pushed forward? How does seeing your children achieve their goals make you feel?

Katrina’s mini gave an overview of her affection for her iPhone. Try journaling about how a specific piece of technology affects you, your children, or your entire family. Or, write a contrast piece: how has technology changed since you were a kid?

Do you ever take photos with a particular purpose in mind? Kelly's album has this potential. Knowing you wanted to collect your photos in a vertical album, you could concentrate your efforts on snapping vertical photos at a particular event or occasion. We are scrapbookers. We do plan these things!!

Keshet’s mini focuses on her daughter’s first week of life. One of the little layouts has a photo of her daughter and her husband together. Try journaling about your children’s relationship with their father. What sort of relationship do they have? How are they similar and what do they butt heads over? Is there a specific moment that encapsulates their relationship?

LisaK put together a mini with all of her favorite photos. Try journaling about one of your favorite pictures. Why do you love it? What are the details behind the pic—who took it, where was it taken? What does the photo capture that no other pictures do?

LisaO's album is a collection of her favorite photos. Try assembling an album such as this little by little as the year goes by so that it is less intimidating. Perhaps keep your ever growing album nearby so that it is easy to add pages.

Marie's happily ever after album is a quick summary of her 12 on the 12th project. Have you a scrapbook page that would also make a fun album that could sit out for easy reference, and show? Sometimes having others see our albums can be just the push we need to finish our projects.

Marnie’s entire mini focuses on her reading choices. Trying journaling about your reading habits. (Your kids’ book opinions aren’t the only ones that count!) What kind of books do you like to read and why? How do you fit reading into your busy life? What’s your opinion on eBooks? Or get even more specific and write about the book you are reading right now.

Monika's Easter album shows how you can use a mini to house event photos. Have you considered making a mini to display photos that deserve more than just a page in a photo album?

Paula’s Q&A album asks the big question: what are your favorites? One of the questions asks about favorite books. Try journaling about what your children are reading right now. Do they love it or are they just sort of “ehh” about it? What is their relationship with the book? (Is it part of a series, or by a favorite author, or one a good friend couldn’t stop raving about?)

And lastly, Vivian's honesty about not loving mini's is sweet. And we love the page she made using up minialbum materials. Clever.

This month, there was so much that moved me. I have made a file of some great ideas and hope you have, too! I wondered if you could let us know if you enjoyed the month and would like to see it again next year. If you could please leave us a comment and let us know if you liked it, we would appreciate it! Thank you!

March 02, 2012

Happy Friday! Emily here with our final day of Celebrate Music week here at write.click.scrapbook. Today as our finale, I have a plethora of different layouts and musical ideas...things that didn't quite fit into the other three days of this week. Music is something that is present in so many facets of life....here are just a few more to round out our week of inspiration!

Celebrate Music Teachers

Did you know that March is Music in Our Schools month? I am so happy to be in a profession where I can witness the joys of music firsthand on a daily basis. Unfortuantely many schools are being forced to cut arts programs due to lack of funding. This breaks my heart. Without music in our schools children will miss out on so many special and important experiences. Take, for example, the joy of learning to play the recorder!

Christa Paustenbaugh's daughter must have an amazing and inspiring music teacher. This layout documents her daughter's desire to some day be a music teacher when she grows up. She's a girl after my own heart!

Celebrate Wedding Music

One moment in your life in which music takes center stage is at your wedding. I'm sure those of you who are married fondly remember your first dance with your spouse, your father-daughter dance, and maybe even some special songs from your reception. I loved every minute of my wedding and reception. Here are a few layouts I created to remember these special times.

Celebrate Special Times

Music can create special bonds between people, especially parents and children. Wcs team member Lisa Kisch created this layout telling the story of a special song she sang to her daughter as a baby. I love the heartfelt journaling and the beautiful photo.

The one piece of "advice" I always give at baby showers when they ask every mother to share something is to sing to your child every day. He or she will undoubtedly think your voice is beautiful and perfect, even if you disagree. Keshet Starr and I must think alike! She had not yet had her baby, but in this layout was was already preparing for the special bond that music would build between them. Thinking of them together now makes me smile. I hope she has been singing to her every day!

My husband and my daughter have a special song that they listen to every night before they go bed. She knows it is "Daddy's Song" and asks for it even when he is not home. I am sure that someday it will be the song that plays at her wedding as she dances with her father.

Finally, Karen Grünberg shares a sweet layout of her songs with a perfect title: "The music of your laughter brings so much joy into my life."

It has a been a pleasure being your blog hostess this week! I hope you have enjoyed all of the musical creations our team has created. I would love to see any other music layouts that you have made. I will leave you with one final thought, one that rings true in my life every day:

March 01, 2012

It's up! Our new gallery, Mini Madness, is filled with lovely mini albums. With as much content as a full-size special edition, there is going to be a little something for everyone! Enjoy! and please leave a comment telling our designers how much you appreciate all their hard work!

February 25, 2012

I loved this month's theme. Music moves my heart in ways I can hardly explain. A song from the past can drag me back to a memory long since faded and make it as radiant as the day it happened. I can turn on any Air Supply song and instantly begin to sing every. single. word. I can't seem to remember my grocery list longer than 5 minutes but I have a whole vault of 1980s lyrics forever seared into my brain!

How does music affect you and your life? Do you love it? Have you a favorite song? or genre? Is there a song that swings you back to your childhood? or your wedding day? Is there an artist that got you through a particularly rough time? Or do you prefer a silence? Either way, have you scrapbooked it?

If you haven't had a chance to be inspired by the gallery yet, let's take once last long lingering look at the loveliness it contains.

Aly First, look closely at Lexie's face. Can you see the excitement and the thrill of the stage? Such a terrific photo. I love how Aly didn't shy away from color on this layout. The costumes were vibrant and bright. I think many of us would have tried to go very neutral on this page, but Aly shows us we need not. And because the star of the photo is in white, she isn't any bit lost as we take in the layout.

LisaK I hope you took a minute to read Lisa's journaling. It is honest and raw and made me miss the stage, too, and it isn't even my place! Moving journaling gets me! I love, too, that she handwrote her journaling. Quite a task to undertake, but it makes the heart of it shine so much more brightly.

Karen When I read Karen's title, I could immediately hear the trilling laughter of my own sweet Poppy. Her laugh climbs a scale and is every bit musical. I am going to have to steal Karen's idea and journal the music of the laughter. I think Karen's layout is a good reminder, too, that when you sit down to scrapbook a challenge, there is a way to make a page that fits the theme even if it isn't the straightforward option.

Francine When I first saw Francine's layout, I giggled at the terrific photos. Not only did she capture the action of the drumming, she also memorialized the delight on both his face and that of his uncle. Speaking of great photos, don't you find it is so easy to journal on layouts when your photograph so perfectly aligns with the story? Photos like these make for my favorite layouts to create (read: easiest to create, therefore favorite to create!!).

Christa Speaking of layouts that are creative takes on a theme, I love this! Christa cleverly wrapped her title up the side and across the top, providing a strong structural element within which she tucked the other elements of her layout. By starting her title treatment at the same horizontal level as her photos, Christa has created a focal point for her layout. She also has repeating elements with the circles (the "o" in to, the sunburst, and the circle behind the heart), the three tags and flags, and the repeated bit of red. All of which serve to create an incredibly cohesive layout.

LisaO Did you notice how many references to current culture Lisa has added to her layout? Not only does she list her current playlist, she also used a current photo. And not only are the colors are at the height of fashion, so, too, are the patterns and the little iconic elements--the bird, the tape. All these elements combine to further tell the story of right now, not just the music.

EmilyS I consider myself quite well rounded when it comes to music, but I must admit Emily's layout had me rushing to my computer to listen to these songs. A few are also favorites of mine, so I figured I might just like them all. So hooray to Emily's layout for helping me expand my playlist!!! Now, onto the design, might I just say how much I adore white on white? And the little tiny graph lines in red did me in. Love love. I thought putting the songs on individual strips was genius, as was not worrying whether or not the lines matched up with those below!

EmilyS in case you haven't yet read Emily's journaling, go get a tissue, and now go read. I'll wait... What a sweet moment captured. To me, this is the very heart of scrapbooking. Pure love.

Celeste I would love to have a photo of my music lessons. I spent years with my favorite teachers and yet, not a photo exists. If your children take lessons, or you do, be inspired by Celeste, and get a photograph of it!!

Kelly What a fun memory to record! Watching your child discover a new skill/talent is special which makes it scrap worthy by definition, right? I love how Kelly printed Crystal's label. It makes the journaling fit so well. Perfect!

Katrina Hooray! Katrina is back! Oh, Katrina! We have missed you so!! Welcome home! My favorite part of Katrina's layout is how she used the single covers as the "photographs." And could the flair be any more perfect?

Marnie I love the juxtaposition of Nigel's beautiful skill with his ratty athletic clothes. Sometimes we scrapbook photos that aren't perfect, and then realize that the layout is better for its little sprinkles of reality.

Marnie This list and layout is so overdue. Please, sit down right now and make a layout about your favorite music. Don't put it off any longer!

Diane Do you know what I love most about Diane's layout? The little letter stickers for s-h-i-n-e. And you do you know why? Usually, when we are going to emphasize a word, we think to put it in a bigger font/sticker. But here, Diane made it smaller. And it works! So well!

Keshet This sweet layout makes me swoon. And makes me want to put together a layout about how it felt to sing to my firstborn. Do you like, too, how Keshet's photo and journaling are taped onto the wood paper? It sort of makes it look like it was taped to a wooden wall, no?

Marie How much fun is this layout? Do you like how Marie used a record and tape on her layout? Cute!

Paula I love that Paula scanned her music in for her background paper! It makes such a statement and it adds to the story so well! I love, too, how she put her journaling in a column right in the middle of her page. Center stage. Not a usual placement, but it works so well, don't you think?

Marie The whiny song! How awesome is that? I can hear one of our three as I type!! I think Marie wonderful for catching a photo of a whiny child. I rarely think to grab my camera when the whine is on. But it is what it is, yes?

Alexandra I love the size on this layout. Long and thin. I also love how Alexandra juxtaposed the modern "get down" with the gold doily. And then she tied the tag with a neutral string is so simple and yet, the perfect last addition. It's those details that Alexandra gets to right!

Francine This layout is a wonderful example of using 5 photos on one layout. By including all 5 photos, we get a much better sense of the occasion than if Francine had chosen just one. And because she grouped them as she did, the layout stays clean and polished.

Amy Having loved Amy's teen week, I am now wondering if this is one of the photos from the "I just had my hair done" collection. (Such a fun photo idea, by the way!) Sometimes lyrics are the perfect accent. And sometimes the perfect title. Also, did you read in Amy's notes how her lyrics block came from the negatives of a Silhouette cutout? That's what I call a two for one!

Donna I love the colors on this layout! The blue and clouds, the green, the little bit of pink, the pop of orange. And then the butterflies! Don't you love how Karen and Donna sneak items traditionally considered "girly" on their pages about their sons? Woohoo!

Erin Like Katrina, Erin let the album covers stand tall as an element of design and story. I love how she recorded her children's favorites, and not just her own playlist. A good idea, for certain! It would be interesting to make a layout like this every couple of years and then compare and see the changes! Oh, the inevitable changes!

EmilyP Do you like how the entire center of Emily's layout is just numbers? No photo, no journaling. But so much fun! And then as you look around, and I mean around, you see her top ten list.

The theme this month, Music, offered much inspiration for journaling, and photography, and our gallery was ripe with inspirational design. I took the challenge to document my musical tastes, and the design challenge of using a list, and added in some inspiration from Emily's layout, and put this one together.